In prior art television receivers an MPU is utilized to control all of the functions, e.g. color, synchronization, etc. An additional chip, which contains all of the OSD circuitry, is coupled to the MPU and provides any on screen displays. Each prior art OSD chip is designed to operate with a specific television receiver, that is, it operates at one specific standard. Typical world standards in the television industry include NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. Further, there are many variations on each of these standards, referred to herein as multidefinitions, which multidefinitions include: Improved definition TV (IDTV); extended definition TV (EDTV); high definition TV (HDTV); as well as interlace scan and progressive scan.
Because each chip operates on only one standard, the frequencies within the chip are constant and it is relatively simple to provide features such as windows and smooth characters. However, even with constant frequencies a large amount of storage space is required to store smooth characters and enhanced edges. Further, window generation requires a relatively large amount of circuitry and does not allow such inovations as a window within a window.